Healing, helping & having a good laugh

Massaging the Message by LuRain Penny

Immediately after the tragic shooting in Tuscon, the Web & Media were abuzz with the damage images of gun-sights & targets can have on both the rational & irrational citizenry.

Stirring up the public has been an incendiary pastime of politicians & the press from the get go.

During the Great World Conflagration 2, the American people were regaled with racist drawings of the German people as ‘Huns’, just as the Fascists were maligning their Jewish & Gypsy populations with crude & insulting caricatures.

American cartoons & movies portrayed all Japanese as big toothed weasels.

We laughed, believed, then came to mistrust even our neighbors.

Our fear allowed American citizens to be interned & their property seized.

With the advent of global technology, the objective viewer dismisses these attempts at racial character assassination indignantly.

After all, we communicate with folks from all over the World.

Those of us not given to stereo-typing, are faint to paint with a broad brush.

What is the reasoning behind pointing out ‘enemies’ & mocking them?

To provoke fear & hatred, period.

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If it bleeds, it leads is rule number one of modern media.

Agitating a fear response is inherent in the broadcasting of events & opinion, even entertainment.

Why are so many tv programs about murder?

Humans are conditioned to be fascinated with terror.

Recently, I watched a History Channel DVD on 2012 & the End of Everything.

It forecasted global collapse, and a Mad Max scenario for all survivors.

Not appealing at my time of Life.

By the close, I felt like going back to the bottle.

What is the point of sobriety if the World going to come crashing down in the next 18 months?

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We are living in dangerous times.

But, it has ever been thus.

History is an embarrassing misuse of evolution.

We have only our nature to blame if we are over populated, polluted & self – culling.

Humans have sacrificed our Natural World for convenience.

Too late we realize the Piper has come for his pay.

We are what we focus on.

By preaching the demise of civilization,we may create what we fear.

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Those of us susceptible to melancholy, dark thoughts & unfortunate accidents suck up these prognostications with a big straw.

Is it no wonder random acts of violence dominate our headlines?

Suicide by notoriety as a last resort to obtain meaning in what seems a purposeless existence.

When we offer no conclusions, when we can contribute no assistance, when we strike fear without providing hope, we are playing the same game as those we despise.

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Balance must be a part of all reporting, even that which we do ourselves.

For every piece of bad news we pass on, it is in the best interests of our readers, and our World, that we also move helpful, constructive, uplifting information around.

The more we who are rational can do, to ameliorate distress in those less capable of dealing with upheaval, the better.

Revolutions take many forms.

When we consider the force of our words & deeds, public & private, on everybody as more important than our agenda no matter how righteous, we will truly begin to change Human nature.